What do you think about a pharmacy in a new medical practice?

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Hello Everyone!!!

What do you guys think about a pharmacy inside a new medical practice? Right now there is one physician but in future there can be more.They say that they can afford my salary only on his client base although they have plans to expand

What are the challenges I can face doing independent pharmacy?What are the things I should be aware of before accepting this position?As I will be responsible for all aspects of the pharmacy operation(PIC)

I asked questions from the physician to find out about his prescribing habits specially regarding controls.During the conversation I didnt see any red flags but this was just one conversation.

Originally Posted by abc1234567

Hello Everyone!!!

What do you guys think about a pharmacy inside a new medical practice? Right now there is one physician but in future there can be more.They say that they can afford my salary only on his client base although they have plans to expand

What are the challenges I can face doing independent pharmacy?What are the things I should be aware of before accepting this position?As I will be responsible for all aspects of the pharmacy operation(PIC)

I asked questions from the physician to find out about his prescribing habits specially regarding controls.During the conversation I didnt see any red flags but this was just one conversation.

Aside from dispensing can you offer other services like anticoag, MTM, diabetes education, etc?

Right now the pharmacy is going through approval process.
Although this was not discussed but I dont see any reason not to do so if I want to provide those services.

Is this legal? My state law says physicians cannot own a pharmacy due to conflict of interest. If you own it though sounds like money (easy cdtm). And how can a single physician practice fund not only 80-100k salary but also inventory.

Well pharmacy cannot be approved till they have a pharmacist in charge.I saw the letter they got from the state regarding that.
Salary question is also in my mind that how can they afford it?
I have asked them twice regarding that and they say that will not be a problem.
I am still not sure though.Initially it is once a week position to help them meet the state requirements and to submit documentation.
Once a week they can afford . I don't know how would they afford me once the pharmacy is established. Approval process will take couple of months that will give me sometime to find out.

What kind of medical practice? What other kinds of providers is he wanting to add? Other specialties?

Chicago Pharm.D I am not sure .I guess the clinic manager said they are talking to get a physician on board who can help patients to get off addiction.
I am kind of confused whether I should join them even for once a week to get the approval process going
What do you gals and guys think?

The pharmacy probably would not be limited to just the patients of the practice; others could come as well. It would probably be pretty easy to do cdtm, and you could actually bill as "incident to" if the insurance wouldn't normally pay for it.

I was asked by one of the physicians at my hospital to help out with starting a pharmacy in the same building as her practice. It seemed like an interesting opportunity, but once I started asking more questions it became clear they did not really understand the economics of a pharmacy. They expected massive profitability...on a mainly Medicaid client base. Something else they didn't consider: length of time until repayment. In Illinois Medicaid has 180 days to pay you...6 months. That means you need to have ~6 months of inventory on your shelves. Our outpatient pharmacy is pretty slow, and we do around 80k in inventory purchases every month. Add that up and you need close to 500,000 in operating capital just in drug purchases! It isn't impossible to make the economics work, but it is very difficult and if you do this, you want to make sure their expectations are realistic.